News and developments on African capital markets: African securities, African stock exchanges, African equities, African bonds, African private equity/venture capital, and African social impact investment. Twitter @africancapital, LinkedIn African Securities Exchanges group.
African pension fund regulators and PPP practitioners have much to learn from Latin American examples on how to let local funds invest into infrastructure, while building the capital markets, plus round-up of some recent research papers.
Can regional integration work for Africa’s capital markets and securities exchanges?
Capital markets practitioners across Africa benefit from a graduate-level programme launched 3 May by the IFC, Milken Institute and George Washington University.
Africa is currently the second most-attractive investment behind the U.S. Seven countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Chad, Mozambique, South Sudan and Sierra Leone – have forecast growth rates over 7% a year for 2014-2016.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), supported by the World Bank Group, are hosting the third Building African Financial Markets seminar this week, bringing together stock exchanges, regulators, stockbrokers and others from across Africa.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange will host the 3rd Building African Financial Markets capacity-building seminar, in Johannesburg from 10-12 September.
On average Africans paying up to 12.4% ($25) to send $200 home, twice the global average. The fees cost Africans an estimated $1.8 billion a year, according to UK thinktank Overseas Development Institute.
IFC signed 2 grant agreements with MicroEnsure Ltd for index-based weather insurance to help small-scale farmers in Rwanda and Zambia manage drought and too much rain.
The International Finance Corporation plans to issue a $50 million (NGN 8 billion) local-currency “Naija” bond in Nigeria to support the domestic capital markets and increase access to local-currency finance. IFC bonds are rated triple-A by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.
The business environment is rising higher on the agenda of African governments and more progress is being made, but there are still major issues. Doing Business 2193 report by the IFC and the World Bank and the Mo Ibrahim Index on African Governance, both published in October, highlight which economies and governments are improving fastest.